Europe Sinking Under Africa?

For millions of years the African Plate has been moving towards the Eurasian Plate at a speed of an inch every 2.5 years (a centimeter a year). The plate contains with it the Mediterranean Sea. New studies of earthquakes are suggesting that a new subduction zone is forming between Algeria and Sicily. This formation of a new subduction zone is extremely rare. According to Rinus Wortel, a geologist from Utrecht University, the African Plate has been subducting under the Eurasian plate for almost 30 million years. Over this time, Africa has moved so far north that its seabed was left in the Mediterranean; all that was left was continental rock, which is far less dense than oceanic rock and will not subduct. However, these two plates have continued to move towards each other and build up immense pressure. Geologists believe the subduction is starting up again, only this time the Eurasia Plate is subducting under the African Plate.

The Mediterranean Sea stretches eastward from the Strait of Gibraltar in a 1994 astronaut photograph.

This area is not considered to be one of major seismic activity, though with this plate Subduction geologists fear that this may change. With the tsunami striking Japan that was caused by an earthquake, this idea is not being taken lightly. In 1908, the article points out, that a earthquake triggered a 40 foot tall tsunami that killed 70,000 people in Messina, Italy.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110419-europe-africa-mediterranean-earthquake-risk-increasing-earth-science/